A one man mission to Suna
by phantonlikegirl
Summary: Hinata, after Naruto'a departure, comes to the Country of Wind to solve a very peculiar mission. she teams up with Gaara. from here on, things won't be easy... HinaXGaara


'_When I look back on these days, I look and see your face.'_

It had been a long time since Naruto left Konoha in search for Sasuke again. She didn't even have the time to say "goodbye" or even wish him luck. It was unpredictable and unstable.

She always had something to do with shyness when it came to telling Naruto how she felt about him. In fact, the years had passed so fast that in absence of his face, she didn't even know whether she loved him or not anymore. It was a difficult situation.

Now, standing in front of the Lady of the Hidden Village of Konoha, Tusnade-sama, with a new mission to persuade to, it was doubly hard to think it. It hurt inside. None of the members of the family had noticed it. She learned from Neji how to hide her true feelings.

It was a single's mission. Everyone else was in duty. She waited in silence to receive her report about her mission. It was hard to concentrate in two directions at the same time. Unwillingly using her Byakugan, she read a few things on the paper Tsunade-sama was holding in her hands. It was something about the Hidden Village of Suna, in the country of Wind.

'Here you are' Tsunade-sama added, as she stretched the piece of paper to her. 'Might I remember that this is hard task, in its essentials? You have to be extra-careful. You know best how to deal with this. It's about the Kazekage. He had some problems with a few bastards! They've been stealing young girls from the village. He needs our help, since you are one of the Byakugan bearers. Neji wasn't available; I would have sent him instead. Be careful, Hinata, these men become really strong when they have special powers and surpass the number of your comrades. I'm sending you alone because there is no one else available. Go, now!'

'Hai!'

She felt like taking a break, after jumping around from tree to tree. She wasn't tired. As she had Kiba in her team, to be fast with your feet was indeed a training with which she had to deal most of the times.

Her Byakugan hadn't sensed anything further from where she had stopped. The coast was clear. She sniffed sleepy. She hadn't had much sleep last night, since she had dreamt about Naruto again, and woke up crying. It was a sad, very sad situation, and all that could take her mind off Naruto was a mission. This was a good start. For this mission, she would have to concentrate everything she had on her Byakugan.

She ruffled her hair, as to relax it and took a seat on a hard rock, to quietly enjoy her apple.

At one point, when she was about to enjoy her third bite of the apple, she heard some bushes crumble and she turned, without saying anything. Her scowling eyes forced her Byakugan to see what it was. It was a person which possessed a high amount of chakra.

She got on her feet and took a position for attacking in any case. Suddenly, the bushes stepped aside and in front of her appeared a boy of her age, probably a bit older. He was red-haired and not too taller than her. His face was impassible and serious, like life had treated him one too many times rather violently. He held a scar at the right part of his forehead, which meant "love". She recognized him vaguely as being Gaara of the Desert. He had once fought with Lee and almost took the boy's dream of becoming a strong ninja. He also had fought Naruto, but she didn't wish to remember that.

Her eyes went down on the ground and she relaxed her muscles, as she didn't fear him anymore.

'I'm supposed to escort you safely to Suna' he said with his usual threatening voice.

He turned his back against her and went ahead. She watched him for a while. She never wished to have anything to do with him. She used to fear him a lot, especially during the Chuunin exam. But again, years have passed since they had seen each other and her training had the benefit of taking her fear away. She was now a 14 year-old lady with a mind of her own, and self confidence which she strongly hid it from her cousin, Neji.

She held her head down, thinking of nothing but how to deal with the people who had been causing the Kazekage so much trouble. Why wasn't Gaara here doing anything about it? She had known that Suna had some of the strongest ninjas. Why wasn't anyone of those ninjas doing anything now? Why would they specifically need her to complete their team?

She sniffed as she decided that the situation might be clearly explained to her at that time.

She didn't' even notice him stopping and watching her. She startled visibly when observing that. Gaara was watching her with a frowning look, like he wasn't agreeing with something which had to do with her. She turned her head above her shoulder, just to verify whether the boy was watching something else rather than her. Nope, he was watching her.

'W-what is it?' she asked confusingly.

'Hn' he sniffed.

She remembered also that he wasn't the type to say many things other than "hn" or a usually sharp and threatening sentence.

'Idiot…' he sniffed again and she startled.

It was an unpleasant feeling. She was about to open her mouth and say something which she had learned herself to say every time Neji would try to despair her. Suddenly, her Byakugan announced her that someone was in their back. By the rushed steps from up the tree, she thought it must be a ninja.

She forgot of Gaara for a few minutes, closed her eyes and forced Byakugan to work for her once more:

'Byakugan!'

She sensed too much chakra. She started to tremble. The chakra's color was different too. It was that of a bronze sight of gold. Her Byakugan refused to go further on that zone. The person who was persuading them was too strong.

The minute she heard the tree from up above break, a swing of strong sand took her away from that spot and retreated her back safely in behind Gaara.

The fearsome ninja appeared. He was tall… very tall and his armor was impenetrable. He was totally made of iron and it scared her to notice that the golden chakra she had seen with her Byakugan was coming out of this weird creature.

Gaara seemed untouched by the imposing presence of their opponent.

She got up on her feet and remained in behind Gaara's back.

She couldn't exactly see the creature's face. It was covered in a huge mask, which not even her Byakugan could see clearly through. Still, she faced a scar on the creature's left cheek. He had round big eyes, and she couldn't figure out what color they were. Still, it struck her like a déja-vu feeling, the creature's face. She backed up on her feet one step, as the creature lifted a heavy ax and pointed it to her:

'A girl! I want that girl!'

'Hn' Gaara sniffed, as he raised his arms, the beginning of his Sabaku Sousou. 'Shut up and come!' he hissed.

She swiftly touched his arm and at that moment, she knew she had done a mistake concerning Gaara. Still, she couldn't stop now, as she added:

'Don't tempt him. My Byakugan tells me his strength is weirdly powerful. You could only get yourself hurt.'

The creature started to swirl the ax above his head, as to gather as much strength as he could into his arm, so he could attack:

'What's wrong, boy? Are you too frightened to fight?'

Gaara didn't move his hands. Even though he didn't like her touching him so friendly, what she had said probably was true. It might have been all in vain if he were to attack now, consume most of his chakra with the sand and then had to deal with an indestructible machine. For the first time, he decided to cooperate:

'What should we do?'

'I don't know.'

Her answer bewildered him in a way, since he swiftly turned his jaded gaze upon her with seriousness. Hinata was hit by the feeling that he was about to punch her for the fact that she had stepped onto his dignity and even told him that she had done in without practically any particular reason at all.

'If you do not attack, then I shall do it first!' the creature burst out. 'Witness my power, little devils!'

He swung his ax and tried to hit Gaara, but the sand rose swiftly, in the moment the heavy iron was about to finish off his face. The sand protected its master and backed up as fast as it had appeared. The ax struck again, but failed. Again… again… again…

Gaara didn't even have to move, since the sand would protect him unwillingly. Still, her Byakugan was gathering more information about that strange chakra the creature had. She rapidly came up with the idea that this person had increased its chakra with a great amount of taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu and above all, religion beliefs and connection with nature. So he was only playing now with Gaara, since she believed that this man held more strength than he would show.

If she could only see the central point of his chakra and have the moment to hit him…

Her Byakugan was activated into a higher level, to try and discover his weak point. Suddenly, she saw a thick point at his forehead, above his left eye. It was glowing stronger than the usual connection points of chakra. She assumed that was maybe not the central point, but certainly one the most important. She swiftly thought that hitting that spot might slow down from his strength.

Gaara was now in danger of being really hit since in an instant, the ax rapidly turned its course from the moment the sand had rose to guard its master. The ax took a left course and hit Gaara.

The boy, frightened and surprised by the ability of this bastard to have finally hit him, was thrown away on a tree, which cracked at the sudden impact.

His face was now splintered and sand went out of his human-skin shell. He didn't smile, though. He was pissed off. Really pissed off, since she saw that his chakra had increased too. She turned to check the thick point on the creature's forehead.

'You junk of garbage!' the creature burst out. 'You and your pesky sand will not defy me so!'

Gaara rose on his feet. The sand was dropping from his body like molasses. He suddenly grinned, getting out weird sounds like a growl. The Shukaku had gotten excited in him. Still, he didn't want that. He had learned from Uzumaki Naruto never to let the demon inside him begin its massacre since it would never stop after that. He swiftly grabbed his forehead and started to wheeze like his chest would have pained him too much.

The creature smiled meanly, as he hissed:

'What's wrong, boy? Your fear has overcome you?'

This was her moment, she swiftly jumped above the monster, in complete silence and she prepared her struck with her palm, as she came down.

'What?! Why you little…!' the monster felt her and as she came down, he drove his ax to cut her in two.

Gaara raised his head, saw her in the air and at a centimeter away from the cut of the ax. He speedily commanded the sand to go and protect her, but it had been too late by the time it had arrived. She got indeed hurt by the ax. It penetrated a bit of her flesh, but the sand had stopped it from going on inside. She caught the moment and struck the monster's forehead with the top of her wrist's bone, which had possessed a visible quantity of chakra. The hit smacked the fiend's left temple and it backed him up considerably as he grabbed the left part of his face and screamed of pain:

'_YOU bitch!!!_'

She was pushed away by his force and was about to fall on the heavy ground, but a soft blanket of sand caught her in time. It hastily turned red from the loss of her blood. Her Byakugan worked again. Now, she saw that the monster's point had broken up and was about to weaken his power.

'Now's the time to kill him, Gaara!' she heard herself screaming.

Gaara listened to her without hesitation and hurriedly commanded the sand to surround his opponent. The sand wrapped around the man's body like a thick blanket, and you could only see his head from up above. Gaara lifted him up with one swing from his hand.

The monster was continuously watching her with the kind of look which didn't define that of an annoyed opponent, but she felt some familiarity into it.

'Sabaku…'

'You'll regret this, Hyuuga Hinata!' the creature burst out growling.

She startled frightened and started to shake, as she heard Gaara's continuing spell: "… Sousou…".

The monster was squashed by the sand and it penetrated his flesh, into a rain of blood. The sand fell with him on the ground, into a blanket of too much blood and tissue ripped off.

Gaara turned to her and saw her still watching their ex-opponent shaking. Something was about this man. He had known her name. Why? Who was he? And why did she have such a strong déja-vu feeling while she was with him? He knew her? She didn't even ask for his name.

Still, she had to gather herself up and become as she had decided a long time to become: untouchable by heart. She got on her feet with a somewhat impassible face and started to take off some of the sand left on her clothes.

'Let's go' she mumbled and turned to leave. He followed her quietly.

When arriving in Suna, she had to report her coming to the Kazekage. Temari and Kankurou were already there, when she and Gaara came in the burrow of the Kazekage.

'So, you have come, finally' the Kazekage muttered. 'Are you the only help Lady Hokage has sent to us?'

'Unfortunately, I'm the only one who was to be achieved, since our people have a rough time too.'

'I see… are you of any great help in this mission?'

'I'm one of the beholders of the Byakugan.'

Her answer seemed to have pleased him, since he lifted a piece of paper which was a letter from the Hokage, telling him about what kind of person she was about to send in help.

'Very well, then. Temari, please, show our quest to her room. I dare ask whether your journey was rather fine.'

She stopped at the entrance of the door. She swiftly met Gaara's gaze and breathed heavily.

'We were attacked by one of those you seek. But your most precious soldier here, Gaara of the desert protected me before I could even wake into my self. I thank you for preparing me a room, lord Kazekage.'

'Yes, of course, you are welcome. You may rest now, since we shall speak later. Temari…'

'H-hai…'

When the two girls went down in the hall, Temari watched her rather inquiring. She recognized the girl as being a scaredy-cat when it came to the Chuunin exam. Now, it seemed her appearance changed swiftly, as her character. She had long wavy hair, with a kind of dignity which sort of defied those of other women. She was walking straight, not at all possessing that torn apart look on the ground. She had changed, this Hinata person.

When at nightfall, Temari called her up to assist at the possible attack by the villains.

When she had come to her post, it was on top of a house and it was already populated by several soldiers including Gaara. He just gave her a quickly frowning look and then turned back to watching the surroundings.

'Byakugan' she ordered and then watched the setting. She looked far away, into the depths of the sand dunes, passing the gates of Suna. The four sparkling golden chakra creatures were seen there. They seemed to wait. Who were they and why one of them had known her?

'I'll check the perimeters' she said, as a result of her falling off the roof in silence and hid behind some houses, afterwards secretly showed herself to the west side of Suna, beyond the gates.

She was now in the fields of the sand dunes, alone and rather defenseless, since she had not taken anything or anybody with her. The four sparks of chakra gathered in front of her like a fence of strength. They approached her. She grabbed a position of attack, pointing her hands in front, foreseeing their weak points already with her Byakugan. The first was the tallest, with an iron made armor, and his weak point was at his chest. He wore the hieroglyphs which meant the name of "Mune". The second one was called "Ji" by the signs on his armor and his weak point was again in the middle of the forehead. The third was called "Nimpu" and his weak point was in the neck. And finally, the fourth "Ni" and his weakest point was one of the most difficult, since it was at the back of his head.

Their faces didn't suggest her anything, not even murderous intent.

Ni bumped with a childishly disgusting voice:

'A girl! We'll eat her!'

'Yeah, we will, we will!' Ji jumped on his feet. They both got out their axes.

'Stop this right now!' Mune ordered. 'She is not to be killed. Look at her better. Can't you see who she is?'

They all scowled at her thoughtfully, trying hard to make their memory come back to remind them who she was and where they have met her.

She couldn't deal with this situation alone, since they might not recognize her. Then again, her hopes at this moment sat on the mightiest of the four creatures, Mune, since he seemed to have remembered her from somewhere.

Suddenly…

'Oh, I remember her now!' bumped Ji joyfully. 'I do, I do , I do!'

'Me too, me too!' Ni followed him.

Nimpu watched her frowningly:

'She's that Byakugan possessor. She's Hyuuga Hinata, isn't she?'

She startled frightened. It was beyond her credibility to think that she had met such creatures without remembering something about them. They seem to know some things about her.

Mune grinned somewhat meanly:

'She does not remember us, though. She would have certainly remembered our master, Ari, before she would have thought of telling that boy to kill him. Do you not remember Ari, princess?'

She watched them in desperate surprise. She couldn't figure out a suitable answer because she couldn't know what might happen as a consequence for that matter.

Mune let his look down evilly, as watching her ugly:

'She does not remember us, brothers. It had been too long for her since then. Might we tell you who we are, princess? Or should we let you linger into forcing your mind to return us to your conscious?'

He swiftly saw her bandage at her upper left thigh, where his brother's ax had hit her this morning. He grinned:

'So, his ax had struck you? It won't be too long then, when you shall remember us nor even turn into one of us. Beware of anything sharp, our princess. It could turn you into a destructive weapon. For now, our story has ended. We shall meet when you shall remember us.'

They all turned and head back away from the Hidden Village of Suna, as leaving her baffled and scared.

'W-wait..!' she called them but couldn't achieve anything. They swiftly disappeared into thin air, as her eyes started to believe she had been dealing with ghosts. She returned to the gates of Suna and headed back for her post.

She sat in the same place where Temari had asked her to. Gaara gave her a sharp jaded gaze, before one of the other soldiers could ask:

'Anything wrong?'

'No, nothing's wrong.'

The week that passed after that was quiet and without any hesitation. The Kazekage started to believe that Hinata's business was already beginning to be something wasted, since the kidnapping had stopped.

Everyone else came back to their normal business.

But she couldn't. Ever since the night she had met those four golden chakra beholders, she had nightmares of them killing her into pieces. Her body would pulse out of eager to get something out from beneath every time her eyes would meet up the color of gold or an ax. Her body wouldn't respond to any of the coldness or hotness outside.

The third day she had spent in Suna, she had accidentally cut herself while helping an old man to sculpture one of his wheels. She didn't even feel the blood coming out. She had become immune to everything her body would come in contact with.

The fourth day, she tried to hide herself away from any kind of looks and went into the depths of the west side gates again. She jumped across them and then turned to face the great walls. She looked around thoughtfully, and then made an experiment which might have cost her some broken bones, if she was wrong about it.

She punched the wall as if she had punched her opponent for protection. The wall made a huge crack and collapsed silently in front of her. Her arm was shaking with blood spilling, broken bones… she had not felt one grip of it. And what was scarier is that only Tsunade-sama could break such an impenetrable wall. So what was she doing there without any of this inquiring training collapsing such an enormous rocky-like wall?

She looked at her hand. The bones were all miss-placed and it would have hurt you like hell if you were to feel the pain. Still, she had not felt anything. She could even sense the calcium inside her bones growing and growing until forcing her bones to their original place and she grew a stronger arm than before.

She pinched her flesh. Only the skin was flexible. The tissues under her skin were strong and firm. She could feel like iron was covering her body. She even believed that if she were to cut her skin, at this limit, she would simply take off a part of cloth named skin, only to reveal her iron-like inside.

She trembled with fear:

'Oh, dear me… what am I to do?'

She fell on the hot golden-pale sand and covered her face with her palms. She wasn't crying though. That was her way of thinking. She believed that parting the reality around her from her eyes by covering them would make her think much clearer.

Suddenly, her Byakugan felt a somewhat different presence than that of hers and turned to swiftly attack the new-comer. The sand had unwillingly protected its master from her fearsome strike with her chakra held in the bone of her palm.

She fell back on the ground, but again on a bed of sand, as she recognized Gaara of the desert standing in front of her. His impenetrable face suggested her that he had not come here to fight.

Her eyes met the ground again and the color of the sand, so strikingly resembling that of gold, turned her eyes away form that sight of sea of sand, watching the boy's white cloak around his right shoulder. At least that was white.

'Sumimase…' she excused herself unwillingly. 'I didn't know it was you.'

She got on her feet and again used that impassible face, as she started to clear the bits of sand from her clothes. When her look glared at him, she saw that he hadn't changed his ugly eyes, while with his hands gathered at his chest, entwined in a gesture of disapproval.

'Why are you looking at me like that?'

Ignorantly, several parts of sand raised and form back the piece of wall that had collapsed because of her fist.

Still, Gaara didn't say anything, but only sniffed. Her head shook indifferently, and her hair drew a little dance while she did that.

'Leave me be…' she mumbled softly and then, turned her back against him.

'You know them' he briefly demanded, with his low and gloomy voice.

'Yes, I do, so what?!'

Suddenly, she trembled as she turned her face back to face him. Her voice turned into another's. It was strong and powerful and mechanized. It was as if bits of iron had covered her vocal cords and turned them into wires of the smoothest copper. She grabbed her neck, as if she wanted to rip it off.

Gaara put his hands up front, as to take the position for his Sabaku Sousou. He now realized that he was no longer dealing with one of Naruto's friends, Hyuuga Hinata, nor was she a Konoha fighter. It was something changing about her, while turning her into a machine apparently.

His eyes turned frightened, though. It was the second time they had turned like that since she had come here. When the girl in front of him turned to face him, he witnessed something strange about her… very strange… half of her face was covered in a weird iron-made mask. It was a strange and dangerously looking helmet.

She was trembling frightened, helpless to what was going on with her. She was shivering and drops of sweat were passing her cheeks and her temples.

A river of blood was now seeping from her right arm, as if she had possessed a deeply cut wound. It covered her entire hand, by the time she raised it up scared and revealed it only to see the blood coming from out of her veins at her elbow's inside. Her veins were breaking apart. She soon felt like tiny explosions colliding inside her skin and forming small parts of bruises.

The helmet was complete now and it did not swathe her eyes, but they were soon covered into a thick green glass which let you into believing you were now dealing with some sort of reptile-like machine.

She swiftly grabbed it and tried to pull it out screaming and yelling, while pushing herself away from Suna. There were strident noises coming from inside the mask, penetrating her ears like a stupidly sung melody which drove you to your insanity.

_Remember us! Remember us! REMEMBER US!!!!!!!_

A thick blanket of sand drew her to almost drowning herself. It held her rather higher than the ground, and she opened her eyes, through the green glasses, only to see Gaara of the desert still watching her, in the same indifferent position.

Suddenly, her mind remembered a scene from a previous mission she had had with her comrades, Shino and Kiba. They had to deal with some common thieves in a port, far, in the Country of Lightning. They were common back then. And their names were… Mune, Ni, Ji, Nimpu and … Ari. But they were common thieves back then. And they liked to steal young women and rape them to death.

Ari, their leader had kidnapped her at that time… she remembered them now. She remembered them very well.

Suddenly, her head began to shake of that stupidly computerized melody and she screamed hard, as so did the song into her ears. Swiftly, they all turned back to their originality. The helmet withdrew somewhere in behind her head, revealing her beautifully dark-blue hair, the bones inside her felt like massive calcium gatherings, rather than an iron skeleton and the blood, cleared up from her wound, as she felt no more veins exploding inside. Everything stopped, the moment she remembered the four thieves.

Her scream ended briefly and her head fell down, fainting.

Gaara decided to order the sand to put her down. He felt like she wasn't a threat anymore. The sand put her down briefly and he came to her body slowly, just to heck her state. The sand withdrew into his gourd, as he approached her. He now was facing the body of a girl his age, which was that of Hyuuga Hinata's, one of Uzumaki Naruto's friends.

Her chest was the only thing that was working enough to tell him that she was still living. Other than that, her body was covered with veins blown up inside and bruised in several places at her chest.

'I … remember them… n-now…' she mumbled, still rather asleep.

Her eyes woke up out of too much light. She was in a hospital room, with a lot of silence around. It seemed no one was at the hospital at this moment. It was afternoon, and she thought that as such in Konoha, maybe the people who worked in the hospital of Suna also had break-times.

It was a sunny morning outside and there were some plates with old food on her table, next to her bed. It was soft and clean and it smelled like fresh sheets.

She watched Suna from her window. The sand was covering most of the scenario, but she didn't seem to mind it. Yes, she was used to a lot of trees and the forest where she usually had trained, but this amount of sand wasn't bothering her at all. In fact, she smiled rather tired, as to please her eyes that the surroundings filled with the trees of her birth were changed into a sea of sand.

The sun was golden-like, but her eyes refused to watch it, since she remembered what had happened… when did that happen anyway? How many days must she have stayed like this? The fact was that she had remembered the four golden chakra beholders.

She woke on her bones and stretched her arms. She closed her eyes and commanded her Byakugan to appear once more. She searched the surroundings and saw that there was no sign of any of those four around Suna. So, they weren't doing anything at the moment.

She got up on her feet and tried to walk. She was ok. So, her body mustn't have suffered too many damages. It was probably the long nap which she had taken, due to her changing body, which forced her to stay in the hospital.

She took her clothes from the wardrobe and changed fast. She got out of her room after that and as she got out of the hospital too, she saw Suna still as active as ever. It was the same in Konoha, only the landscape seemed to be different.

The wound at the liver-zone, the wound that came from that creature's ax, was hurting her for some reason or another. She held her palm at that spot and continued to cross along the streets, in order to get to the Kazekage's house. She had to tell him that the four golden chakra bearers were to attack them any minute now, that she remembered them. She felt that the Kazekage might not believe her at all, when hearing the actual story, but at least she would give it a shot.

She felt her body very heavy, but she had to carry on. She loosened her Byakugan, considering that her chakra should be used in order to help her reach the Kazekage's house well enough to speak to him, after that.

The house was just above her eyes, light and large, with a lot of rooms and windows open to let in the freshly morning air. Some kids were playing around with a ball and they almost hit her, but she protected herself. The children excused themselves for their mistake and she only smiled to them pleasantly.

"_Children will be children…"_

She reached the enormous door and grabbed its handle. Suddenly, she stopped, as she heard some noises from the far east side of the gates, not far form the Kazekage's house. She trembled, with her eyes turning big with fright. It scared her to think that even when they had least expected, the four golden chakra creatures were attacking. She trembled continuously, as her body would determine herself to turn and check up what was going on in that side of the Hidden Village.

She furthered herself away from the Kazekage's house and reached a narrow street, quiet and lonely.

It had been only a single strong sound, since none of it continued after she parted from her destination. She stopped and thought of herself as having hallucinations. She was delirious to think that they would attack at day-break. She smiled shortly and turned to head back to Kazekage. Suddenly, she screamed shortly at the instant presence of Gaara of the desert in front of her. it made her fall behind, on the ground and gnash her teeth because she felt a stabbing pain at her liver-zone.

He had the same position, as it would characterize him very well. His jaded gaze was frowningly watching her, like he was disapproving to the fact that she had left the hospital without authorization. She sniffed and got back on her feet, as she tried to clear out the sand from her clothes. She was beginning to feel annoyed by the fact she was continuously bumping into this kid every time she'd find herself in a place totally alone. It gave her the slight feeling that he was following her somehow.

She didn't like anything about him. it wasn't that he was stupid or appalling. Heavens help her, she wasn't at all thinking like that about him. it was his mere selfish-like being that disposed her very much. His jaded frowningly-like look which most of the time never seemed to have met a single small smile irritated her. She had grown up into not fearing people like him anymore, but not even understanding their way of being like that. It was something which she couldn't handle into controlling.

Still, she had to give the impression that even though he actually made her feel insignificant and a genuine nothing, neither his gaze nor his distant way of being was affecting her in any cause.

'Stop sneaking behind people, it's very rude' she politely suggested, as turning her face away from him, so she wouldn't have to deal with his defying look.

Her body refused into stretching rightly, because of the wound's pain. She still held her palm there. She felt like her body had caught a tremendous amount of weight, even though she was skinny as usual. The iron inside her mustn't have left her yet.

She sniffed bored and then looked at the east side of Suna:

'I'm sure you also heard that loud noise. What was going on?'

She swiftly added:

'Byakugan!'

She saw that some architects were building a stronger wall for the village's safety. She breathed relieved and deactivated her Byakugan.

She turned to leave back to the Kazekage's house. She briefly saw that he was still there, watching her impassibly.

'Stop staring. That's not nice either' she again added politely.

She passed him heavily, with the weight of her body pushing her hard to force her bones and muscles to move normally.

Her eyes dropped on the ground and she swiftly felt the need of dealing with Tsunade-sama as to heal her. She wished that this mission would end fast, so that she could return home safely. Maybe it was best if she weren't alone on this.

It would certainly laugh of her state of mind. If she had a partner in this, then the shape of loneliness in which she fell at this moment would be a complete joke. It would have been a great irony for her.

She went on ahead, unaware that her feet would do a dirty and tricky thing to her as to irritate her even more. But then again, it wasn't irritation. It was more like fright.

She foolishly stepped on the same leg twice, which made her stumble on a tiny rock which she hadn't noticed in time, so her feet, heavy as they are, made her balance take a small holiday. She screamed shortly and was about to feel the rocky ground, when a blanket of soft sand stopped her in time. The wound was touched, tough and it made her tremble with pain.

'Agh!' she bumped and pushed her palm against her wound as to take away the instantly unbearable pain away with artificial pain. It was a universal trick somehow. Treating pain with pain. If the pain was too much to bear, you would have to do something on that spot as to draw another pain. While dealing with the new pain, it would help you forget about the previous pain, that had started this in the first pain. The second remedy for this was to simply ignore the pain until it would go away when you'd least expect. But this wasn't working for any of the cases. Ignorance was out of the question and creating a new form of pain wasn't handling it either. But it seemed to be the only medicine at the moment.

It was a tricky situation and she thanked the sand for stopping her develop that pain into one that would simply make her wish to pull out her liver.

Yet, she remained in her position, as she tried to wait until the pain would at least calm down.

Nonetheless, it wasn't too long until she saw Gaara's black sandals stopping at the tip on her nose. He watched her from up above her visual sight with superiority:

'What are you doing there? Get up!'

'It's not nice to order around when people are in trouble. I'm in pain, so just give me a break…'

She tried not to think that it was Gaara of the desert who she was talking to. She briefly came up with the worrisome idea that he could cover her in sand any minute now and crush her to death with his fearsome Sabaku Sousou.

She had heard that he had fought not too long ago Naruto and that he was beaten up indirectly speaking, but she didn't know whether that changed his way of being in any way. He still simply appeared to be frightening and dangerous. She sensed something had changed about him though. He no longer possessed that high-rated murderous intent of his and he wasn't at all feared by his two brothers, or so she had noticed. Therefore, something must have happened that changed him. Still, she wasn't going to risk any of that. After all, she was the one lying practically paralyzed on his sand, with him on his feet at her head. She was, so to say the least, a light target for his complete satisfaction of murderous pleasure.

Still nothing like that happened. In fact, she felt the sand lifting her up. Frightened as she was, she quickly believed that he was about to do one of his Sabaku Sousou or his Sabaku Taisou. Nothing like that happened either. On the contrary, the sand had put her back on her feet and held her stiffly, so not allowing her legs to again go wildly around. She didn't look at him though. She was afraid of facing those utterly disapproving eyes of his.

'That weapon…' he started but didn't finish his sentence, as her gaze rose to meet his. He no longer had that frowning look. He was indeed seriously about it, but he wasn't at all defying any more.

'W-weapon…?' she asked confused. 'What weapon?'

'The one that hurt you… it turned your body…'

She swiftly turned her stare away, as she tried not to tremble:

'Y-yeah…'

He didn't say anything at all, after that. He sniffed:

'The Kazekage is not here at the moment. Go back to the hospital.'

She rapidly thought that maybe he should know about it, since he had been present fro half of the situation she was dealing with:

'You know I can't go home now, don't you? Even if things are calmer now, the bad is only just beginning, since I have remembered them.'

She sniffed again. This time it struck her with reality. So, they weren't after Suna at all… they were actually after…

'Then again, on the contrary. I should be leaving Suna as fast as possible. They will be after me, not after your village.'

She felt more vivid now and even parted from the sand which balanced her body. She looked more decisively into the void, when adding to herself:

'I have to both keep away from the country of wind and my own country. I've got to catch them out of the borders, far away from here.'

She swiftly turned her head towards the eastern side of Suna:

'I have to leave at once. Maybe even today. But then again, I can't since the Kazekage isn't here… what should I do?'

She again grabbed her face in her palms as she would usually do, so she could think clearly.

'Gaara-kun, you wouldn't happen to know when is the Kazekage returning, would you?'

He kept quiet and the look on his face told her that his answer might also be a negative one.

'Right…' she mumbled softly. 'Then I shall meet them at the borders of the country. And when my work is done, I shall return to give the report. Fair enough…'

She remembered that she had taken off the scenario where she might die. She shrugged her shoulders carelessly:

'I shall die if I must…'

She turned and jumped in the air, high, disappearing.

It was almost dawn and it was getting cold. The borders of the country were lonely and quiet. It was too much silence around, since nothing was to be determined with her Byakugan. She had concentrated her chakra as to rest, for any kind of possible fight between her and those four men. It was a tricky mission, she had to think of that. She wondered if Tsunade-sama had any idea of the gravity of this mission. Probably not, since she had faith in sending on man into a battle of four opponents more.

It was quiet around. She had set up traps, which to her beliefs, could only give her a notice that the adversaries were near, since she knew that mere traps like that would be handled easily with creature who possessed such a high level of chakra. Then again, she might have been wrong. After all, it wasn't something carved in stone that they possessed high rated chakra, just because its color was golden. They could've easily been transformed into some creatures of another nature than that of a human being. After all, back then, Gaara had easily killed one of them. It was Ari… she remembered that they had kidnapped her then for the same purpose, of eating her. They were cannibals. Thieves and cannibals and they pleasured the flesh of young pretty girls. Ari was the only one to have possessed a rather warmer heart than the others. Even though their leader, he had kept her alive by delaying her as becoming their meal. But he had something different, which she couldn't like about him. He had those shrewd-like eyes, which stuck into her memory until the day she met him again and he got killed by Gaara. Those shrewd-like eyes told her at that time that even though she was still alive, it was only because he wanted her for himself. He wanted her to be his meal, and only his. It was a good thing that now he was dead. Those sharp eyes wouldn't have to follow her back into her dreams.

She swiftly fell asleep and almost got into the world of dreams, when a sharp, but deaf noise woke her eyes. Her Byakugan was activated swiftly. It was someone with a great amount of chakra.

'_Bollocks!' _she thought. '_I'm not even prepared yet and this wound has been hurting me continuously, since I left Suna. It hurts like hell and now I have to deal with a strong opponent.'_

She took a slight position of fight. Her palms were shaking though. Her eyes were trembling. This was a bad moment for her body to handle even a fight. She couldn't handle this situation, no matter how much her mind would try to higher her moral.

Suddenly, she heard another noise, which appeared to be coming from up above. Her eyes moved their irises, scared. She hadn't expect it to attack from up above. She couldn't handle this anymore now… she saw a widely deep shadow coming from up above. It was her end…

'Byaku… gan…'

Swiftly, as the great machinery was landing almost on the place where she was resting, a thick blanket of sand took her away from that spot and covered her like a heavily built wall, putting her to a much more protective spot, next to the sand's master.

She trembled as she saw a boy of her age, reddish and impassibly looking at his hugely mechanical opponent.

Gaara of the desert was standing beside her, only he lacked of his sand in order to protect her.

His opponent was Ji.

'I want that girl! She's mine to eat!' he cried fearsomely and turned really angry. 'I remember you, little brat! You were the one to kill our beloved brother, Ari! You should learn manners when taking people's food out of their hands. She's my prey!'

He got his ax up and swung it vigilantly. Gaara was about to drawn his sand towards Ji, when he heard a buzz coming from behind him. he turned his gaze frightened, as he figured out that the speed of the thing which was coming towards him might be too fast for the sand to protect him.

Suddenly, the attack was stopped by her hand, since she stroke the ax with her chakra at her palm. It made a weird snapping noise, while told the redhead that his life was saved by her. She sat her back against his:

'You fight him; I shall fight the other one…'

Suddenly, a third huge shadow appeared and it slapped her far away from Gaara. The sand automatically protected him, but Ni – the newcomer – had been too fast and too quiet to be noticed by him in time in order to protect her as well. He couldn't even see where her body was thrown out the moment she stopped screaming. He was now dealing with his own opponent.

Ji grinned:

'You better leave our prey alone. I'm your opponent now, brat!'

Gaara looked at him ugly:

'Hurry up and come!'

She was parted from Gaara. The hit struck her too far to be seen. She was now on a green field, with three of the golden chakra beholders. Their axes were already swirling in the air.

'So, you have remembered us, then, little princess' Mune bumped sharply. 'It wasn't too long since that wound had gotten to its effects. I'm surprised though how you managed to stand up to it. It's quite unbearable for those who are not used to it'

'Look at her!' bumped Ni smiling. 'She's not so strong either. The iron skeleton is giving her a hard time. She can barely hold her legs up straight! Ha, ha, ha!'

She had to agree with him on that. The iron skeleton inside her was now a difficult burden. She couldn't keep up with her speed. With her normal speed. She was breathing heavily and she felt that most of her chakra had been gone on trying to keep her body steadily.

'Let's attack her now!' bumped Nimpu, smiling sadistically. 'She's all alone now!'

'That's exactly what we'll do. We'll make her pay for our brother's death! A thousand cuts of ax!' Mune ordered, with his spell.

'Divine murderous cut!' Ni followed him, after that Nimpu, with his "Ten deep wounds!'

They all three their axes, at the same time, as they summoned their spells. Mune's ax turned into millions of poisonous spikes, while Ni's ax turned bluish and sparkled of its sharpness. Nimpu's ax rushed like a javelin towards his opponent.

All she had to do was use some of her rather small amount of chakra to protect herself.

She closed her eyes:

'Shugo hakke rokujuu yon shou! (divine protection: 64 strikes!)'

Her chakra activated immediately, and with her hands grabbing a rather fast speed, she started to cut through the weapons attacking her.

She had been keeping this strike as to be used when she had possessed a higher level of chakra but the circumstances were different now.

She felt weaker and weaker…

'_More… More… More flexibility… I can't… my arms…_'

She felt the inside skeleton disapproving with what she was doing. Her left arm weakened its speed. One single mistake and her absolute defense was about to fail.

One single mistake…

It happened… her left arm lost its speed and so did the other one. But it only needed one to fall. And she was about to deal with only a few spikes left. One of them caught the moment her chakra strike failed and hit her straight in the neck. She fell on the ground gnashing her teeth.

'She got hit finally!' Ni jumped joyfully in the air. 'She's ours now, for real!'

'Let's kill her fast and do her a great funeral to remember us even after her death!'

'_More… more chakra… more… more chakra!' _

'Let's do this!'

Their axes swirled around again. They attacked once more. As the weapons flew towards her body nearer and nearer, she burst out, activating her Byakugan at the same time:

'NOW!'

A lot of chakra javelins came out from the chakra binding spots in her body. They pierced once more the attacking weapons, but several reached her flesh and cut through, torturing her again. Quite a lot of needles, without being poisonous this time, had penetrated her flesh into the places where bones would meet the most. Nimpu laughed, since that kid of weapon was his type:

'They only aim the spots where bones meet. Now, you're perfectly paralyzed. And what's more, those needles leave you out of chakra, since they slowly feed on it! Ha, ha, ha!'

'And my poison won't let you live for more than 2 days!' Mune added, laughing too. 'What will you do now, princess?'

'_Oh, no! Is this my end? Oh, I wished I had never ended up in a mission like this! I ran out of chakra, I only have a small amout of it, I'm tired, my entire body hurts and I want to be in my bed sleeping my guts out, even dreaming painfully of Naruto. Never shall I accept a mission on my own. I should have thought better before thinking of something like this. Now, this is my end. I haven't even fought Neji to prove my existence as a real female ninja to him. What would father say about me? Will I be misunderstood? No… everyone will say I died like a true ninja: in battle. I had failed a mission, but it was only because I was to be murdered…. Oh, dear, this painful iron inside is really something hard to deal wit. It hurts within my veins. It creates some sort of tiny explosions in the veins. It really hurts… I cannot control my body any more… oh, well, this is my ending… if only I had told Naruto what I felt for him… maybe things would have been staying different for me than this, now…it's too early for me to die, but no use complaining. I had already complained too much in the past. I am a female ninja and I have to bear with the fact that I shall at least die like one…'_

She closed her eyes, as she felt the poison slowly possessing parts of her muscles. She heard the buzzes of the weapons coming near to her. She felt like seeing her father for the last time… she squeezed her eyes to blind her gaze…

'Ryuu Sabakuryuu!'

The sudden spell made her body tremble for the last time, probably. She opened her eyes swiftly, only to see Gaara of the desert in front of her protectively and ordering a huge dragon made of sand to swallow all those weapons. As usual, he had no wounds on him. Or at least that's how much she saw of him. She didn't see too much after that. She felt too sleepy. But she had to keep her eyes open. If not fighting with him, then she would have to at least help with by using her Byakugan with the last breath of her chakra.

'Byakugan!' she ordered and watched their opponents, as they got angrier.

'This kid is kickin' my nerves!' Ni burst out angrily. 'Where's Ji?'

She finally realized that she didn't see the fourth of them, as he was left behind to fight Gaara. Did this redhead fight him off?

Gaara sniffed untouched:

'He'll be waiting for you in hell!'

With his hands he swiftly commanded the dragon of sand to surround all three of the other creatures.

'Each have a weak point at their chakra!' she screamed. 'You can't beat them by simply drowning them into sand.'

'Spikes of divine nature!' Ni ordered his ax and it turned into a million of needles, flowing towards Gaara. The sand automatically protected him, but the spikes were strong enough to penetrate the sand wall. However, they fell on the ground.

'As long as I have the sand, I can do anything' Gaara answered, sure of himself and once more commanded the sand to approach the three opponents. Mune was witty enough to sense his move and warned his brothers to fly to a different spot. They drew further away form them.

She knew that didn't affect too much of Gaara since he had a neck for long distance combat. The sand followed the three brothers until they reached a more secure spot. But just as Ni was about to get into that spot too, the sand caught his leg and instantly covered him.

'N-NO! Brothers, help me! Help me out of this!'

He screamed terrified, as he was lifted in the air and squashed just like his older brother, Ari.

The other two left, Nimpu and Mune watched him carelessly:

'He was too dumb for our team anyway…'

'_He was your brother, you assholes!'_ she thought angrily.

Ni's blood spread across the battlefield in a rain of blood. It was an awful sight she had to close her eyes, not to witness such a dreadful thing.

Gaara didn't seem too affected by it again. He watched the other two left, with despite:

'Enough small talk! Hurry up and come!'

'I must say, little princess, you have a neck for being rescued by freaks every last moment' Mune laughed shortly. 'Too bad that poison wasn't something to be rescued from that fast now. It's a difficult task, you know. You'll die within two days, if not earlier. And with the help of Ni's chakra eating needles, you shall meet our brothers in hell faster than you'd expect. Maybe this boy should step aside and let us ease your pain faster. Ha, ha, ha!'

'_Oh, boy…'_

She could see his weak point. It was in his chest. She had to strike him once, or at leas, let Gaara know where to strike the best.

'Hit him in the chest, Gaara! Hit him there! That's where his weak point is! You could slow down his chakra flow with that!'

'You little…!' Nimpu started angrily and commanded his ax to attack once more. Fortunately, the sand protected her instinctively.

Gaara watched his opponents with a more intense look:

'I'm your opponent now.'

His jaded look watched the central spot of Mune's chest, as Hinata had advised him to. He gathered his palms and burst out:

'Suna Shigure! (Rain of Suna)!'

The tiny sparks of sand started to attack both brothers and turned them into going away one from each other. Mune and Nimpu had started already to increase their chakra because of getting angrier, but they had nothing to do at the moment. The sand needled were embodied with a bit of chakra and it couldn't miss any of their spot, since their entire body started to hurt like hell. They got wounded.

Suddenly, as Nimpu furthered away into a more defensive spot, he heard his brother's sudden scream. He startled and saw that Mune was on the ground, holding his stroke chest, as his golden chakra was leaking outside like some kind of liquid.

One of Gaara's sand needles touched the creature's chest, the weakest point of his chakra. Gaara didn't loose any moment and ordered his sand to cover the bastard up and drowned him easily into a sea of sand with his Sabaku Taisou.

He then, turned his gaze towards the last of the golden chakra beholders, Nimpu.

He was trembling with fear, since his only courage came from the fact that his brothers had never been defeated before and he could always have his back protected. Now, he was alone with the murderer of all his other three brothers.

He fell on his knees, crying and praying to Gaara:

'Please, don't kill me! Have mercy on my soul! I never wanted to be like them anyway! Please, please…'

His cries didn't reach Gaara's ears. Still, the boy had other things to attend to. He returned to the girl on the ground, rather paralyzed.

Her Byakugan foresaw it anyway. She trembled as she saw that Gaara's sight had fooled him into believing that Nimpu was already done for. As soon as the boy turned to her, she saw Nimpu raise up, grinning manically and preparing his ax to strike his opponent.

'Look out!' she screamed, with her last breath.

Gaara swiftly turned and ordered a huge fist of sand to be thrown into the creature. The sand hit the monster and attached him violently of a thick and old tree. The inside bones were heard cracking and a huge amount of blood started to come out from his eyes and mouth and ears. His head fell down with his turbulent eyes. He had died.

'Yokata…' she whispered, but this time she really couldn't help but closing her eyes. The poison had already taken control of most of her muscles.

She woke up, with the same light in her eyes. It was a blindfold, but she had to deal with it. Suddenly a huge shadow covered the light and it took the shape of a rather smiling Temari:

'Good morning, Hinata-chan. I see you've woken up. Yokata…'

'W-where am I?'

'You're in the Suna hospital. You've been like this for more than a week.'

The door squealed when opened again. This time, inside came the Kazekage, Kankurou and Gaara of the Desert.

The Kazekage approached her bed, as he rather smiled:

'I am glad you are back to life. I have informed your Lady Hokage that your mission here was a success and that you shall be returning to her as soon as possible. Still, I have also informed her of the damage you've suffered. It won't be too long before the iron skeleton will definitely go away. And of course, the poison had already been gone by now, from your muscles. You are out of any danger at the moment.'

'T-thank you, Lord Kazekage… b-but will someone please explain to me…'

'Yes, indeed I shall.'

The Kazekage looked at his subordinates and added softly:

'Please, wait for us outside. I shall speak with her in private now.'

They all got out and Gaara was the last one to have closed the door. Before doing so, his eyes drew to her and met her gaze. She sort of smiled to him, as a thank you, and even though his face was still as impassible as usual, he did rather possessed a sense of tenderness into that jaded stare of his, as to answer back with a polite "you're welcome". He closed the door, behind him.

The Kazekage took a seat on a chair, where Temari had stayed before him.

'I have to let you know of the entire truth. You see, my dear, I had already knew about the inquires those four golden chakra beholders asked for. It was you and solitarily you. I didn't know that you had met them once before, but I knew that they wanted only you.'

She smiled bitterly:

'I quite have figured that by now, since I sensed that your precious ninjas were of no use to this mission. I mean, why call one ninja, from a far foreign state, when you had three one of the ultimate ninjas here? It was something which bothered me and I had figured it out by now that this mission had to hold something secret in it.'

The Kazekage smiled:

'You are a smart one, Hyuuga Hinata'

'But, how was it that they became so? When I first met them, they were mere thieves and the only thing tremendously scary about them was their cannibal instincts.'

'Yes, well, I had my medical nin check this up too. It seems that for the past few months they had increased their social position by feeding not only on young girls, that is human form, but also on iron and anything that had to do with weaponry. They turned their own bodies into iron-made containers. The rest all had to do with a lot of training, since they reached the level of normal ninjas. The golden chakra was due to this training and feeding on metals.'

'I see now…'

'Well, then, now that we are all settled, I shall grand you a few more days, before you get on your feet again and then you shall return to your country of birth, of course with the highest gratitude for accomplishing this task wonderfully.'

'Oh, you couldn't thank me more than you could thank your subordinate, Gaara of the Desert, lord Kazekage. He was the one to have killed all of them'.

'It was only because of your wounds that you couldn't do this to the ending. Gaara was merely helping your back. Nothing more. Now, if I may be excused, I shall return to my duties as the Kazekage. Have a pleasant left-over here, Hyuuga Hinata!'

'Thank you, lord Kazekage. Thank you very much…'

Later on, almost three days later, she found herself lying at the Suna's entrance gates, prepared to head back to her country of Leaf. The three Sand ninjas, Temari, Kankurou and Gaara were there to politely and officially say goodbye to her.

'I'm glad you are back on your feet' Temari smiled pleasantly. 'I shall have to visit you pretty soon, since the preparations of the Jounin exams are coming up.'

'Yes, I know. We'll meet there, then!'

'Take care of yourself!'

'I will, thank you.'

She was about to leave when she turned and decided to give Gaara a proper thank you. She approached him and stand before him with a nice and warm smile:

'Thank you, Gaara, for helping me back then. If it hadn't been for you, I would have been gone right now. Thank you once more'

He didn't answer back, which annoyed Kankurou. So, his older brother hit him with his hand in the back, bursting out:

'At least, say a polite you're welcome to her!'

The struck was rather hard, since he sort of pushed his little brother into the girl in front of him. Gaara ended up accidentally grabbing Hinata in his arms and their lips entwined into a surprisingly deep kiss. They both held their eyes big with surprise and Temari and Kankurou laid confused. Temari backed up one short step.

'L-look at that!' Kankurou cried out. 'He's only been the good guy for a few months and he's the one getting all the smooching now! And I haven't even gotten my first one!'

'You should shut up!' his sister hissed, trying hard to secretly smile. 'Remember Sabaku Sousou, Kankurou… remember Sabaku Sousou…'

She giggled in the back, as her little brother and Hinata parted rather baffled. She turned red in her cheeks instantly and came back to her intense shy way of being, as her face entirely looked like a lobster. She added a swift and hushed "goodbye", after that flew away in between the dunes of sand, to head home.

As for Gaara, he remained sort of surprised for a few seconds, until she had disappeared from his sight. After that, his gaze returned to that of impassibility and turned away, passing his brothers.

Kankurou and Temari started to giggle secretly, but held back their breaths whenever seeing their brother's sudden moves. Still, Gaara didn't do anything more than just to think of what had happened to him and that girl, Hinata, who was one of Naruto's friends. He woke up with his fingers slightly touching his lips. What was he doing? He was Gaara of the Desert, the untouchable bastard from the Hidden Village of Suna… he was… he was… He had been kissed, hadn't he…?


End file.
